Hoboken artist likes the tried and true techniques

Hoboken artist Joseph Ventura is a true Renaissance man—or at least, he uses the tried and true techniques of Renaissance greats.
“I draw and paint from life and strive for accuracy and detail,” said the 26-year-old. “Classical realism is not like photography or copying a photo, it is a breakdown of the structure of human visual experience and a personal interpretation of visual information.”
First, Ventura sketches out subjects that allow him to explore aspects of elements like light and shadows or certain colors. He then breaks out a canvas and the real work begins.
“I first create an accurate and detailed drawing where I emphasize a clear distinction between areas of light and shadow. I then make a desaturated under-painting to re-establish the drawing, model forms and create the value structure of the image,” he said.
“Over this comes the over-painting and glazes, which I use to develop each object separately in full color. These methods were developed to take advantage of the properties of oil painting materials and, to me, produce the most luminosity and depth.”
Some of Ventura’s work is currently on view in Valley Cottage, N.Y., in his solo show “Still Life and Portraiture,” featuring still-life paintings in oil, portraits in different stages of development, a few graphite drawings and even some watercolors done en plein air in Italy.
“The centerpiece is my most recent and largest still-life painting, ‘The Art of Dying.’ It’s composed as somewhat of a shrine to Bruce Lee and my practice of Jeet Kune Do,” said Ventura. Other favorites include a portrait of Nikki Urban, his girlfriend of five years, and “Torso Cast,” one of his most labor-intensive graphite drawings.
Ventura said he hopes to bring classical techniques back to the forefront.
“There are still artists who invest themselves heavily in their work, it’s not all ‘found-objects’ (garbage) and banal abstractions,” said Ventura. “There is a large and growing community of artists who take art seriously and wish to reverse the trends of 20th century in that respect.”
“Still Life and Portraiture” is on display at the Valley Cottage Library in Valley Cottage, N.Y., through July 29. A reception will be held tomorrow from 1 to 3 p.m
For more information, visit JosephVentura.com.